The Reasons Why I Like You
by Andramion
Summary: Yachi has a crush on Nishinoya and doesn't really know how to deal with it. She accidentally asks Hinata for advice.


**The Reasons Why I Like You**

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><p>"Good job, Shouyou!" With a slap on the younger player's shoulders, Nishinoya walked over to the the other senpai and Yachi watched him chat with their captain as she shuffled over to Hinata.<p>

"Here, Hinata." She handed him his bottle of water and he thanked her before gulping the drink down. "Hey, Nishinoya-senpai is really nice, isn't he?" She glanced up and the redhead seemed to be sparkling with excitement.

"Noya is sooooo cool! He's like GWAN and BAM and–"

"No, no, that's not what I meant!" Yachi interrupted him and she turned her body in Hinata's direction, glancing at the senpai to make sure they didn't walk over and catch their conversation.

"Oh, you mean how he's a really cool senpai? He really is, isn't he? You know, on the I first met him, he immediately agreed to help me with my receives and he bought me ice-cream!"

"No, no, Hinata, that's not what I'm saying!" The girl's voice was starting to get louder and she noticed both Sugawara and Kageyama looking at the two of them. The former looked worried, the latter just torn between confusion and annoyance.

"But he really is so cool! He always works really hard during training and you should have seen how hard he worked to get Asahi-san to come back to the team! Oh and the ROLLING THUNDEEEEERRRRR!"

"Hinata! Keep it down!" Yachi waved her hands at the boy and looked around her nervously. The whole team was staring at them now, obviously having picked up that their conversation was about the one boy that was now _walking towards us and oh god no, what am I going to do?_

Faster than she'd ever moved, she hid behind Hinata and peeked around his arm to see Nishinoya get closer and closer. She lightly punched Hinata's upper arm and reprimanded him in a hushed voice. "Stupid Hinata! You don't understand, do you? I like Nishinoya-senpai!"

"Hmm? Yeah, me too! Noya really is an amazing libero and a great senpai too!"

"She means it in a different way, you idiot."

With her eyes open wide, Yachi turned her head to see Kageyama standing on Hinata's left, bopping the middle blocker on the head. Her cheeks burned when she realised what she had just told not just Hinata, but Kageyama too.

"Oooooh, you _like_ like–"

"Shut up! He's right there!"

"Rolling thunder again, huh, Shouyou?" Nishinoya's hand settled on Hinata's shoulder and Yachi could see the tips of his fingers as they curled around. "Want me to show you how to do it again? It might still be a little too hard for you, though!"

Yachi watched the libero laugh heartily as he led Hinata back onto the court, about to start practice again, and she sighed heavily. To her left, Kageyama made a face she couldn't really decipher, before setting his bottle aside and following after the other two.

Soon enough, practice was back in full gear. The more she tried not to look in Nishinoya's direction, the more Yachi caught herself staring at him. She sighed once again. She did that a lot lately. _What on earth am I supposed to do? Should I confess to him? But what does he think of me?_ She shook her head. _I'd never be brave enough to do that._

_But that's why I talked to Hinata about it, right?_ Truthfully, though she had blurted it out by accident today, she'd been thinking of telling Hinata about it. After all, he was the one that gave her the courage to tell her mother she was going to be a manager. She had figured that maybe, just maybe, he would be able to do the same thing this time.

"Yacchan!" At the sound of the Daichi's voice, Yachi snapped out of her thoughts. "Could you please refill our drinks?"

"Yes, sir!" she immediately answered and she started gathering the bottles from where they were left on the side of the court, putting them in the plastic holder so she could carry them easily. It took her a while to get the job done, as the taps outside were closed a little too tightly.

When she stepped into the gym again, a ball hit the floor right in front of her and bounced up towards her face. Instinctively, she brought the bottles up to protect herself, but she never felt the impact of the ball. Instead, the weight she was carrying lifted a little.

She carefully opened one of her eyes, seeing Nishinoya right in front of her, sipping from his bottle and a ball trapped between his arm and his side. His Adam's apple bobbed up and down when he swallowed and Yachi couldn't help but stare at him. When he finished, he placed the plastic bottle back in the carrier, cocked his head slightly and showed Yachi a big grin. "Thanks, Yacchan!"

Then he jogged back to the net and all Yachi could think was _aaaah, I really, really do like him._

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><p><em>This is getting out of hand.<em>

That's what Yachi was thinking as she stared out the window during class, completely aware of her lack of concentration, just because a second year class with a certain senpai in it was having P.E. outside. She knew she should be paying attention to her classical literature class, but watching Nishinoya play _goalkeeper_ of all things, jumping around and somehow catching the balls kicked at the goal each time, was way more interesting.

The other team, the one with the red vests, moved up to the white team's goal again and Nishinoya widened his stance, ready pounce in whichever direction the ball would come. Yachi moved up to the edge of her seat, tense in anticipation of the shot. The attacking team got past one of the defenders, two of them, three, the last one before the goal…

Before she could see the outcome, though, Yachi found herself on the floor, her chair on the ground with her and all of her classmates and the teacher looking at her.

"Yachi-san? What are you doing?"

The girl's cheeks burned red and she quickly got up and bowed to apologise to the teacher. "I'm sorry! I fell off of my chair!" She plucked the chair off of the ground and set it up straight again, patted her skirt and sat down.

"You… fell off of your chair?" the teacher repeated after her. Then he shook his head. "Well, if you can't see the blackboard, you're welcome to switch seats with someone for now."

"No, no, no, I'm fine, thank you."

It took a while before she glanced at the field again. The bell for lunch break rang when she did, but Yachi didn't make any move to pack up her bags. Down on the field, Nishinoya was – for some reason Yachi couldn't even begin to think of – looking up while he wiped the sweat off of his forehead and for a minute there, Yachi was sure they made eye contact. _But that's impossible over such a distance, right? I'm on the second floor after all._

"Yachi-san?"

One of her classmates' voices pulled her out of her thoughts and she looked in front of her to see it was the boy that sat next to her during the first trimester. _What was his name again?_

"Oh, hi."

"Aren't you going to eat lunch?" he informed, rubbing his neck and looking at their classmates, all getting ready to leave the classroom.

"Ah, I am! I was just in thought."

At her answered, the boy smiled broadly. "Good! I was a little worried there. I thought you might be on a diet. Not that I think you're fat! You're not!"

Somehow, the boy's sudden urge to talk to her made Yachi feel a little uncomfortable. She started organising her work- and textbooks on her desk, knowing it was a little rude to do so while he talked, but wanting to get out of this situation anyway. When she was done, he was still blabbering. Gathering some courage, she interrupted him by saying the name she now remembered.

"Mizusawa-kun, did you want to borrow my notes or anything? I mean, that's usually why people talk to me in the classroom." That was the most logical explanation for this conversation after all. Even in her college prep class, she was known for her easy to follow notes. Her classmates often asked her to have a look at them.

"Uhm no, I just…" the boy rubbed the back of his neck again and his eyes darted around the classroom. "I kind of wanted to ask you… if maybe… if you haven't got plans for lunch yet… would you mind… would you maybe like to join… m–"

The question was interrupted by a loud thud as the door slid open with more force than necessary. In the doorway stood Nishinoya, still in his gym clothes and panting loudly as he stepped over the threshold and in front of the teacher's desk.

"Nishi–" Yachi started to get up to ask him what was wrong and the boy had stepped aside too, but she was cut off by Nishinoya's loud voice immediately.

"YACCHAN!"

She automatically stood up a little straighter and gave the automatic "Y-yes!".

With one hand on his hip, his stance wide and the other hand raised to point at her, Nishinoya started speaking.

"I like that you are friendly! I like that you are nice! You are kind and you work hard! I like that you became our manager even though you didn't know a thing about volleyball! I really, really like that you are ten centimetres shorter than me! I think that you are really cute and amazingly smart and I really admire you!"

Extremely embarrassed by the sudden loud waterfall of compliments, Yachi's cheeks burned bright red and she didn't know how to react. However, she'd never expected those words to be his next.

"Most of all, I really like you!" He looked around and with a blush on his face, he continued. "I REALLY DON'T KNOW WHAT I AM SAYING ANYMORE, BUT PLEASE JUST GO OUT WITH ME ALREADY!"

Nishinoya bowed, actually bowed – perfectly, an almost 90 degree angle between his legs and upper body – and Yachi broke out in stutters.

"Ah, uhm, Ni-ni-no…"

Karasuno's libero came back up again and looked at her confusedly. "Ninino?"

Yachi closed her eyes and balled her fists. "NISHINOYA-SENPAI! I really like you too! S-so… I'll be in your care!"

When she bowed too, though, she bumped into her desk and sent her books flying. She could hear some of her classmates snicker and suddenly remembered that they were definitely not alone here.

She looked around to see most of the desks in the room weren't vacated yet. Actually, a rather large group was apparently planning to have lunch there. One of the girls mouthed something at her. 'Go, Yachi-san', she made out of it.

After taking one look at Nishinoya, who seemed to be stuck to the ground where he stood, completely shocked by her answer, Yachi quickly picked her books of the floor and put them in a neat stack on top of her desk. Then she bowed to the boy.

"I'm sorry, Mizusawa-kun, I have to go! I'll lend you my notes after class okay? Sorry!"

Without giving the boy another chance to speak, she grabbed her lunch bag, walked over to Nishinoya and boldly grabbed his hand to pull him into the corridor. Once out of the classroom, she led him to the emergency stairs and sat them both down. Still nervous, she just pulled her bento out and opened it up.

He seemed to come to his senses then. She was in the middle of picking up an octopus-shaped sausage when he spoke.

"Hey, Yacchan, you did.. just say that, right?" After a deep breath, she was able to look him in the eyes and the hopeful look in them made her heart flutter.

"I… I did." Another deep breath. "I've liked you for quite a while now, Nishinoya-san. I.. I'm really happy right now." After that, she couldn't bear to keep eye contact, so she looked down at the lunch box on her lap and took a bite in order not to have to speak.

Next to her, Nishinoya let his breath escape. "Whew, wow, that made me nervous." He linked his fingers behind his head and laid back on the landing, seemingly completely relaxed.

"Then why did you…" Saying the word _confess_ just sounded so embarrassing now. "In front of my whole class?"

"Well, it seemed kind of urgent."

"Urgent?" She glanced at him, but he wasn't looking at her. Instead, his eyes were on the sky above them.

"Well, that guy was talking to you."

"Mizusawa-kun?"

"I guess so. I don't know why, but it seemed like going straight over was the best idea."

Yachi's eyebrows drew together. "He was just asking for my notes from class and… wait, did you run over after that? That was really fast! You were right on the field just a moment before that!"

Unexpectedly, that made Nishinoya blush. She could see the slight reddish tint under his skin when she threw him a quick look. _Is this even real?_ she couldn't help but think. Then she realised her own words. _Now he knows I was looking at him! What if he thinks I'm a stalker? What if he knows I wasn't paying attention in class? Aaaaah, what am I going to do?_

With both of them in thought, neither spoke until Nishinoya's stomach grumbled loudly. He sat up immediately and apologised. "I'm sorry, I haven't brought my lunch. It's still in my classroom and I didn't go back first…" He laughed it off, but he was obviously nervous too.

_That's.. kind of amazing,_ Yachi thought,_ that even with all those other people, the one he's nervous about is me. That he likes me. I'm… his girlfriend now, right? Wow._

"You can have some of mine," she offered, and she held her bento out to him. Nishinoya's eyes twinkeled as he looked at the food.

"Can I really?"

"Sure, dig in. Oh wait, here." She grabbed a pair of throw-away chopsticks from her lunch bag and held them out to him. Yachi always came prepared. With a big grin, Nishinoya clasped his hands together, chopsticks stuck in between, and thanked her for the food.

After they finished eating and Nishinoya had thanked her once more, he asked her another question.

"Hey Yacchan, would you make me lunch again sometime?"

She scrambled for words. "Ah, if you're okay with having it, yes! I'd.. I'd like to!"

A big grin appeared on his face again and Yachi felt her the heartbeat she thought had finally settled down pick up again. "As I thought, your girlfriend's food tastes the best after all!"

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><p><strong>Bonus:<strong>

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><p>Nishonoya and Yachi had been dating for a few weeks already, when a question nagging at the back of Kageyama's mind found him next to the little middle blocker on the side of the court.<p>

"Hinata," he started and the other looked up at him, his edge of his drink bottle still pressed to his lips. "I was wondering… that time that Yachi said she liked Noya-san… how come you didn't ask her why?"

The redhead looked thoroughly confused. "Why would I ask her that?"

Kageyama felt a bit of irritation rise in him. "Well, you always seem to want to know the reason behind everything."

"But Noya-san is really cool."

"But…"

"And he's not just cool, he's a really good senpai too."

"Yeah, yeah we heard that speech already. But that's not exactly a reason to fall in love with someone, right?"

"Well, I guess Yachi has her own reasons. I don't know how girls think." With a shrug, Hinata put his bottle down and picked the ball at his feet up. "Let's go play some more volleyball!"

"You're really not curious about it? You're not going to give Yachi an avalanche of questions?" Kageyama asked, just to be sure.

"Not really." Hinata shrugged again and walked onto the court.

Kageyama followed him immediately, but seeing how he was always on the receiving end of Hinata's endless questioning, he couldn't help himself from asking one more thing- himself.

"But why?"


End file.
